


It's A Love Story, Baby, Just Say Yes

by fiveainley_ohmy



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: 5+1, Bullying, Childhood Friends, Childhood Sweethearts, First Kiss, First Love, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, John Watson to the Rescue, Kidlock, M/M, No underage, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pretend, Puppy Love, Sherlock is a Damsel in Distress, Teenlock, fairytales - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-09-06 21:30:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8770045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveainley_ohmy/pseuds/fiveainley_ohmy
Summary: Growing up together, Sherlock and John had a favorite game. (Or, five times the knight didn't kiss the princess and the one time he finally did.)





	

1\. _we were both young when I first saw you_

"Hi. I'm John. What's your name?"

The curly haired boy blinked up suspiciously at this new peer. Most of the other children didn't talk to him. "I'm Billy," he said.

John smiled really big. The seven year old was missing a front tooth. "Want to play Knights And Dragons with me? I'll be the knight and you be the dragon."

Billy kind of liked the sound of that. "Okay." He stood from where he'd been making diagrams in the sandbox and arched his back, making his long fingers into claws. "Rawwwwwr!" he roared, pretending there was fire coming from his mouth.

John picked up a stick to use for a sword. "I'll slay you, dragon!"

John chased Billy about with his makeshift lance and eventually, "slayed" him. Then, giggling, they reset and started over. Sometimes, Sir John won the game; other times, Billy the Dragon did. But it wasn't really who won or lost that made the game fun: it was the adventure along the way.

After Billy had been slain for the fourth time, the curly haired boy said, "Let's play pirates. I'll be Captain Redbeard, and you can be my first mate."

"Okay!" John happily agreed. And their medieval quest was put aside in favor of rollicking on the high seas.

But Knights And Dragons became their favorite game. They went on many adventures together. John was always the brave knight, and Billy always the fearsome dragon. And they saw no reason to change. Until one day...

* * *

2\. _you were Romeo, you were throwin' pebbles_

"Hello," said a new boy. John and Billy had been best friends for two years. "I'm Greg. Can I play with you?"

"Sure!" said John cheerfully. "We're playing Knights And Dragons. I'm the knight."

"Can I be the dragon?" Greg asked.

"Okay."

"Wait," said Billy. "Who can I be then?"

"Oh," said John. "Um...ooh! I know! You can be the princess, and I'll rescue you from the dragon's tower."

"Where's the dragon's tower?" said Greg.

"Ummm...up there," said John, pointing to the top of the slide.

"Alright," said Billy, a bit reluctantly. He was loathe to give up his role as the dragon - he was a good dragon.

Billy climbed to the top of the slide and waited there, watching Sir John chase Greg the Dragon around the playground. Finally, John slew the monster, and Greg fell to the ground.

Sir John climbed all the way to the top of the tower. "You're safe now," he told Princess Billy.

"Thank you so much, brave knight!" said Billy, playing his part.

John hugged Billy from behind. "Okay. Here we go!" They cried out in glee as they flew down the slide together. They clattered to the ground, giggling. "That was fun! Let's play again!" Billy said.

So, the game now had a new set of rules. And Billy found that as much as he enjoyed being the dragon, he also quite liked being rescued by John - maybe even moreso.

* * *

3\. _I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run_

One day, Billy and John didn't play their game with Greg.

"Billy, this is Sarah," said John with a goofy grin on his face. A grin for the girl.

Billy didn't much like that grin, when it was for someone else.

"Can she play with us?" asked John.

Billy scowled. "What about Gary?"

"His name's Greg, and he's at home with the chicken pox. We need three for the game."

"No we don't! We used to play it just fine with two!"

"Don't be mean, Billy. Let Sarah play with us!"

Billy grouched. "Fine. She can be the dragon."

"But I want to be the princess," Sarah said.

"No! That's me!" Billy said, stamping his foot.

"But I thought you liked being the dragon!" John said.

"But...but I'm  _always_ the princess," Billy argued.

"We could take turns," Sarah tried to offer.

"NO!" screeched Billy. "You can't be the princess! John's supposed to rescue ME!"

"Billy, you're being mean!" shouted John, and Billy was shocked. John had never yelled at him. "I don't think I want to play with you. Come on, Sarah." John took her hand and walked away, leaving Billy all alone.

Billy was stunned. Finally, he turned away and slowly began to walk home.

He heard John laugh somewhere behind him. Billy looked over his shoulder. John and Sarah were going down the slide together. The way John and  _he_ used to do.

Billy sniffled back some tears and walked faster.

Mycroft was dribbling his basketball in the driveway when Billy finally got home. Mycroft smirked at him. "What's the matter, little brother? Finally get tired of your silly baby games?"

"Shut up, Myc," Billy muttered.

"Aren't you too  _old_ to be playing pretend?"

"Aren't you too  _fat_ to be playing basketball?!" Billy snapped back irritably, just as Mummy was coming outside. Mummy gasped and sent Billy to his room until supper.

Billy laid on his bed and sulked. He thought about John and his stupid, silly, new... _girlfriend_ , Billy supposed she was. Did five years of friendship mean nothing to John?

"Girls are stupid," Billy decided.

The next day at school, John sat next to him at lunch. "Hey. I'm sorry about yesterday," said John, trying to be friendly.

Billy sniffed imperiously. "I don't care. Just because you'd rather play with some stupid boring girl than me."

"Hey, that's not very nice. I like Sarah a lot."

"Yeah. I could tell," grumbled Billy.

"What has gotten into you?" John asked. "You've never acted like this before."

Billy moodily stabbed at his cold tuna noodle casserole with his fork. "Nothing," he muttered.

* * *

4.  _I was cryin' on the staircase, beggin' you, please don't go_

Billy wouldn't play with Sarah. Or Lilly, or Amelia, or Felicity, Jeanette, Pamela, Shelby, or any of John's girlfriends. And unfortunately, that made John have to split up his time. As time passed, Billy saw less and less of his knight. And their game faded into their childhood, existing only in their memory as they grew older.

It wasn't that Billy hated girls. Billy liked Molly and Irene and John's sister Harry. He just hated the girls that John liked.

Mary was the worst. She and her cousin Jim and his friends were the ones who tripped Billy (although in his ninth year, he began going by his middle name, Sherlock) in the halls and knocked his books from his arms and called him 'freak' and shoved him into lockers and trash cans. What hurt Sherlock the most was that John seemed to like her the best.

It was when John began dating her, when they were 15, that Sherlock realized that he and John weren't friends anymore.

They were young adults, and they had grown into different people. John had girls and sports and his friends, and Sherlock had his experiments and his dancing. Still, when Sherlock saw his once knight in the hallways, a pang went through his heart.

For a long time, Sherlock hadn't understood  _why_ John liking girls bothered him so much. It wasn't until one day, when Sherlock saw John kissing Mary in the hall, and his heart ached so much, and he wanted more than anything to be in her place, to feel John's lips against his and be the one John held at night and hear John tell him he loved him, that Sherlock finally understood.

Sherlock knew it was impossible that John would ever return his feelings. Even if John did like boys, it wasn't like Sherlock was even in his league. John was the popular, nice rugby captain and Sherlock was the ballet freak, the odd boy who did experiments and didn't talk to other people. John wasn't the brave knight and Sherlock wasn't the princess in the tower. The fairytale was over.

* * *

5.  _my faith in you was fading, when I met you on the outskirts of town_

"Hey, freak!"

Sherlock looked up from where he was trying to light his cigarette. Jim was coming toward him, flanked by a couple of his cronies, and Mary.

"You're Frankland's TA," said Jim, crowding him against the stone wall, the back of the gym. "And we want the key to his physics final."

"I can't get you that," Sherlock muttered uncomfortably.

"Oh, I think you can," said Mary, running her sharp fingernails down his arm, just this side of painful against his sensitive skin. "And if you don't..."

Sebastian Moran drew his pocket knife menacingly.

Sherlock shook his head, inching away from them. "No...I'm not going to do it."

Jim sighed. "Too bad. Then we have to mess up that pretty face of yours."

Sherlock took off into a run, Moran and Wilkes after him. His long dancer's legs gave him an advantage, but just barely.

Sherlock only had one other ace up his sleeve. He was good at climbing trees.

He scurried up the nearest one he could find, shimmying his slender body up to the highest branch he could balance on without it breaking underneath him.

"Shake him out!" Jim called.

Moran and Wilkes both grabbed the trunk and began shaking the tree. Sherlock, getting nearly tossed back and forth, held on for dear life. The rough bark scratched into his skin, and he whimpered. Moran and Wilkes shook harder.

"Oi! What the hell is going on here?"

Down below, John yanked Jim's cronies off the tree. "What did poor Holmes do to you? Clear out of here before I report the lot of you!"

Grumbling, the four bullies slunk away. John looked up. "Billy?" he said. "You can come down now. They won't hurt you while I'm here."

Sherlock swallowed hard. Slowly, he lowered himself down, branch by branch. But when he reached the last one, his foot slipped, and he fell - right into John's arms. Sherlock looked into those gorgeous indigo eyes that he'd dreamt about for years and blushed hard.

John laughed awkwardly, also slightly pink. "You're safe now," he said.

Sherlock carefully got his feet steadily on the ground. "Thank you," he said quietly.

"Not a problem," said John, smiling. Sherlock had to force his knees not to buckle. "Sorry about those guys. God, can you believe I used to actually date Mary?"

"Er...used to?"

"Yeah," said John, embarrassed. "We broke up. After I found out what a colossal dick she is."

Sherlock laughed a little.

"Listen, Billy, you sure you're alright?"

Sherlock looked at his shoes shyly. "No one's called me Billy in years."

"Oh right, you go by your middle name now, don't you? Sherlock, right?" John smiled. "I like it. It suits you...I could never go by my middle name. It's awful."

"What is it?" Sherlock asked.

John looked around to make sure they were alone, then said to him quietly, "It's Hamish. Don't go spreading that around or I'll never hear the end of it."

"Your secret's safe with me," Sherlock smiled.

John smiled back. "C'mon. I'll walk you to your next class."

* * *

6.  _I love you and that's all I really know_

To Sherlock's surprise, John became his friend again. They started spending time together, both in and outside of school. Obviously they didn't play those silly games of pretend they'd partaken in when they were young, but the friendship that had existed between them once before came flooding back as if it had never left.

They were walking to Sherlock's house one afternoon and passed the old playground that had been the setting for their epics back in the day. "Hey, Sherlock, look!" said John with a grin, dropping his bag and running onto the deserted lot. "The old place looks just like I remember."

"Well, except smaller," Sherlock joked.

"Hey, remember this?" John picked up a stick from the ground and struck a heroic pose. "I'm Sir John, and I'm gonna slay the dragon!"

Sherlock grinned and became the dragon. "Silly little knight. I'll grind your bones to make my bread!"

"That's giants, you berk!" John laughed.

Sherlock rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

As if they were kids again, they chased each other around the playground, laughing and ducking. Finally, John "slayed" Sherlock. "Got you!" he declared truimphantly.

Sherlock, panting for breath, was giggling. "Yes, yes, well played, 'Sir John'."

"Okay, now you go up to the top of the tower and be the princess so I can rescue you," said John.

Sherlock blinked, his cheeks turning slightly pink. "What?"

"Well, come on. That's how the game goes. The knight slays the dragon, and rescues the princess."

Sherlock looked away shyly. "Aren't we a little old for those games, John?" he mumbled.

"You weren't too old for them a minute ago," John pointed out, grinning. "Go on. I'll be right behind you."

So, Sherlock climbed to the top of the slide, just as he'd done when he was a young boy, and John climbed up after him. "You're safe now," John said, reciting the old script.

Sherlock smiled. "Thank you, brave knight."

"Okay, budge up," said John, trying to slide in behind Sherlock.

Sherlock grunted, making room for him. "We might be too big for this."

"Nah, we got it," John said, wrapping his arms around Sherlock's chest. His legs were bracketing Sherlock's longer ones, Sherlock's back pressed snugly to John's chest. He was practically in the rugby captain's lap. Sherlock's blush deepened. "Okay, ready?" John asked.

"Ready."

"One...two...three!" The boys zoomed down the too-small slide and ended up in a pile at the bottom, limbs hopelessly tangled. Sherlock ended up with a face full of dirt, but they were laughing too hard to care.

Then John was cupping his face and gently bringing their lips together. The world stopped for Sherlock as his eyes fluttered shut, finally getting kissed by the knight in shining armor at long last.


End file.
